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Oly MFT lens for shallow DOF

Started Dec 22, 2014 | Discussions thread
(unknown member) Veteran Member • Posts: 5,193
Re: It really depends on subject distance and how much blur you want.

Paul De Bra wrote:

With the 45mm f/1.8 if you take a head shot you need to stop down quite a bit (to around f/4) to get a substantial part of the head in focus.

f/4 is really too much IMHO !!!
Even at f/2 you may have the head fully sharp, no problems.

If you consider your subject at least as important as the blurred background you will not use it up close at f/1.8.

The following shot was taken at 34mm f/4. (It won the teddybear challenge on dpreview a few months ago.) Look at the full size image and judge whether this image has enough of the teddybear in focus. It doesn't matter whether we think the background is sufficiently blurred or not. For a shot like this it's the subject that matters most. (This was shot with the 12-40 f/2.8 lens.)

And here is a shot at 45mm f/2.8 (with the 45 f/1.8 lens). This was at a rehearsal before a concert. F/2.8 was needed to get the conductor in focus. The conductor was 15 to 20 feet from the camera. The organ in the background was 150 to 200 feet from the camera.

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Slowly learning to use the Olympus OM-D E-M5.
Public pictures at http://debra.zenfolio.com/.

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